American judge who hit the newsstands with the Watergate Scandal, when he declared that Nixon had to hand over taped conversations from the White House. Keen on stiff sentences, he was known as 'Maximum John'.

"For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, Time's Person of the Year for 2006 is you."

Singled out by Time as a person who had had the greatest impact on world events, for better or for worse. "He's not a good guy, but he's done extraordinary things," said Time's managing editor Richard Stengel. "He's a new tsar of Russia, and he's dangerous in the sense that he doesn't care about free speech; he cares about stability. But stability is what Russia needed, and that's why Russians adore him."

In the 60's they marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, in the 70's they rose up in Iran and Portugal, the 80's they spoke out against nuclear weapons in the US and Europe, against Israel occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and against communist tyranny in Tiananmen Square and Eastern Europ